Kris: Quick find on a beautiful day so we brough Truffle and Journey along to get some fresh air:
Showing posts with label #Geocache365. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #Geocache365. Show all posts
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Mr "OK-So-Actually" and Mrs "UH-So-Actually"
Kris: I've trying to find a better way to keep up with our blogging and also the posting of our videos. Most of the videos we put together are part of our #Geocache365 Project, something we are trying to use to develop into more of a short film series eventually on it's own blog/site.
Now any of you that have seen all of our geocaching videos you may have come upon our horrible speaking habits. Ever since I started watching our films clips, it's ridiculously obvious that both Mark and I stutter and severely overuse the words OK, So and Actually. So.....please know we are going to keep working on that :) Below is our most recent video of a find and some of our opinions on the archiving of the ET Power Trail. You can find the rest of our Geocache365 videos by searching for makuhn2000 channel on YouTube.
It's pretty late in the evening so I'll cut this post here. But I will say we had a really fun day today course marshalling for the Get Lucky Half Marathon. We saw a number of our runner friends and then got to hang out with Team Baby Dinosaur for the afternoon while they were in town. Those two are so much like us, it's funny awesome :) Although I'm sure their house stays much cleaner than ours and is much less......uh.....chewed on.
We spent some extra time Friday night trying to clean up so it was a little more presentable, and then I crossed my fingers that our sweet, not so intelligent Journey didn't make a puddle or mess on the floor for us to find when we arrived back at the house with our guests! We love Journey dearly, but being a mistreated puppy mill dog, she's not all there and we have to be very patient with her mess making.
We'll try to get a training, rehab, racing update to you tomorrow :)
Now any of you that have seen all of our geocaching videos you may have come upon our horrible speaking habits. Ever since I started watching our films clips, it's ridiculously obvious that both Mark and I stutter and severely overuse the words OK, So and Actually. So.....please know we are going to keep working on that :) Below is our most recent video of a find and some of our opinions on the archiving of the ET Power Trail. You can find the rest of our Geocache365 videos by searching for makuhn2000 channel on YouTube.
It's pretty late in the evening so I'll cut this post here. But I will say we had a really fun day today course marshalling for the Get Lucky Half Marathon. We saw a number of our runner friends and then got to hang out with Team Baby Dinosaur for the afternoon while they were in town. Those two are so much like us, it's funny awesome :) Although I'm sure their house stays much cleaner than ours and is much less......uh.....chewed on.
We spent some extra time Friday night trying to clean up so it was a little more presentable, and then I crossed my fingers that our sweet, not so intelligent Journey didn't make a puddle or mess on the floor for us to find when we arrived back at the house with our guests! We love Journey dearly, but being a mistreated puppy mill dog, she's not all there and we have to be very patient with her mess making.
We'll try to get a training, rehab, racing update to you tomorrow :)
Friday, January 21, 2011
#Geocache365 project notes
Kris: We're making some decisions to try and further the reach of our #Geocache365 project beyond just our completion of the challenge. For those of you that follow our Twitter as well, you'll notice we Tweet each of our finds with a picture, plus now that we have our new toy (The HD Bloggie) we are starting to take videos from time to time as well. We are working on developing the #Geocache365 page on this blog but not entirely sure where it's going to go yet. So for our Geocaching friends...keep an eye on our blog and the #Geocache365 page.
We were also recently interviewed on Cache-A-Maniacs and that podcast should be posted I think this coming weekend.
We finally got to see our entire wedding video as it was done by Charlie and Mike at Forever Films. It was so fantastic! I wish I could post the full video for all to see but it's 53 minutes long so I'm guessing it might be a bit much for YouTube. But....the feature highlight version should be posted within the next few days so that will be available for all of you. I was so stoked to see that we got a special message from the finish line announcer who was the one and only John "the Penguin" Bingham! I've been such a fan of his articles when he was writing for Runner's World. Charlie...that was money shot #2 whether you knew it or not :D
Mark: The video is absolutely AMAZING!! And worth every penny. We have watched the video several times since we got our BluRay copies. And honestly I can watch it over and over again, especially the highlight video at the end. It really makes me wonder why in this day and age do people place so much emphasis on a wedding photographer? What do you get with a photographer? A photo album that you will look at once when you get it and then probably never look at again. Save yourself the money, collect all of the pictures from your friends and family, everyone has a camera, and put those in an album. Take the money you were planning on for a photographer and hire a GOOD videographer, you will be able to relive your wedding over and over. And Forever Films is a VERY GOOD videographer.
Kris: Hey, Team Baby Dinosaur! You are both in our full feature video so consider yourselves famous ;) Hope we can show it to you when you venture up to our frozen tundra of MN!
Kris: And a little plug for Charlie and Mike, they also have launched this fantastic wedding video series called Forever-TV. If you are planning a wedding in the Twin Cities area or just love everything wedding, you NEED to check this out!!
Oh yeah, I tend to forget about training. Since I'm still rehabing this @#%!ing leg and the weather has been anything but favorable for running, we honestly haven't been doing much. We have been back to Masters Swim at least once per week and have been getting in short runs maybe 1-2 times per week but other than that we've been a bit lazy. It's quite hard mentally, emotionally to feel like we're being total slugs but at the same time we have been able to prioritize things like going to free social networking events for our ZapEvent work, relax and watch TV without having to be multi-tasking on something else and (most importantly for my sanity), sleeping in more than once a month! Part of me has a hard time feeling like a lazy slob that is doing nothing but becoming a worse athlete by the day but there is also a part of me that realizes if we're going to have to take a break and me rehab from an injury....now isn't such a bad time to do it.
Mark: I am very fustrated with training, the weather in particular. It is so tough to go out in the cold, the snow and the dark to get in any runs. My original plan was to run the Securian Half Marathon in a couple of weeks but at this point I will probably just do the 10K or if our lack of training continues not run the event at all, which I would be really upset at myself. Securian was the very first Half I ever ran and I have run it or a clod shortened half or the 5K every year since. I hate living here in Minnesota at this time of year.
We were also recently interviewed on Cache-A-Maniacs and that podcast should be posted I think this coming weekend.
We finally got to see our entire wedding video as it was done by Charlie and Mike at Forever Films. It was so fantastic! I wish I could post the full video for all to see but it's 53 minutes long so I'm guessing it might be a bit much for YouTube. But....the feature highlight version should be posted within the next few days so that will be available for all of you. I was so stoked to see that we got a special message from the finish line announcer who was the one and only John "the Penguin" Bingham! I've been such a fan of his articles when he was writing for Runner's World. Charlie...that was money shot #2 whether you knew it or not :D
Mark: The video is absolutely AMAZING!! And worth every penny. We have watched the video several times since we got our BluRay copies. And honestly I can watch it over and over again, especially the highlight video at the end. It really makes me wonder why in this day and age do people place so much emphasis on a wedding photographer? What do you get with a photographer? A photo album that you will look at once when you get it and then probably never look at again. Save yourself the money, collect all of the pictures from your friends and family, everyone has a camera, and put those in an album. Take the money you were planning on for a photographer and hire a GOOD videographer, you will be able to relive your wedding over and over. And Forever Films is a VERY GOOD videographer.
Kris: Hey, Team Baby Dinosaur! You are both in our full feature video so consider yourselves famous ;) Hope we can show it to you when you venture up to our frozen tundra of MN!
Kris: And a little plug for Charlie and Mike, they also have launched this fantastic wedding video series called Forever-TV. If you are planning a wedding in the Twin Cities area or just love everything wedding, you NEED to check this out!!
Oh yeah, I tend to forget about training. Since I'm still rehabing this @#%!ing leg and the weather has been anything but favorable for running, we honestly haven't been doing much. We have been back to Masters Swim at least once per week and have been getting in short runs maybe 1-2 times per week but other than that we've been a bit lazy. It's quite hard mentally, emotionally to feel like we're being total slugs but at the same time we have been able to prioritize things like going to free social networking events for our ZapEvent work, relax and watch TV without having to be multi-tasking on something else and (most importantly for my sanity), sleeping in more than once a month! Part of me has a hard time feeling like a lazy slob that is doing nothing but becoming a worse athlete by the day but there is also a part of me that realizes if we're going to have to take a break and me rehab from an injury....now isn't such a bad time to do it.
Mark: I am very fustrated with training, the weather in particular. It is so tough to go out in the cold, the snow and the dark to get in any runs. My original plan was to run the Securian Half Marathon in a couple of weeks but at this point I will probably just do the 10K or if our lack of training continues not run the event at all, which I would be really upset at myself. Securian was the very first Half I ever ran and I have run it or a clod shortened half or the 5K every year since. I hate living here in Minnesota at this time of year.
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| Random Cuteness - Maverick and Neo |
Thursday, January 6, 2011
My two new best friends - Yoga Mat and Roller Stick
Kris: ......whether I like it or not!
So I've been continuing with my PT at least once a week ($80+ per visit....sigh...) and making some slow progress on the healing of my leg issues. After today she believes I'm deformed, to put it lightly. Without trying to go into medical speak, basically my hip joint isn't perfectly aligned and when my muscles are tight and knotted up, it causes issues. It's not rare but it's not really common either. In some cases it requires surgery to fix but she doesn't think I'm anywhere near that conclusion.
I have only done a few VERY short runs and am excited to pick up my Newton shoes tomorrow and give them a whirl. I hope I'm not getting too excited that I'm going to put them on and all the pain will be magically gone. A number of people have noted that after starting to run in Newtons they no longer had IT band issues. Cross your fingers please :)
We have both been struggling to get back into a workout routine. In the past couple weeks, we've been swimming a few times, been to a fitness class once and done a few 3 or less mile runs. Having a hard time getting motivated to want to workout but at the same time I have this nagging voice in the back of my head all day saying "slacker.... go workout, you know you'll feel better, you're getting weaker, don't you want to be stronger? faster??" I don't think the weather is helping at all unfortunately, for those of you that have followed me on my old blog you know I'm not a fan of treadmills and also hate the cold, slippery trails.
But I've had a few very panicky moments during those short runs. I am feeling so much more exhausted after just a mile...WTF?....and I want to sign up for a 50k at the end of April and then focus on speed training for a Boston Qualifier??? Good freakin' luck right?? I was excited about it before my running world came tumbling down....
Work has been crazy this week on a number of fronts but all good I guess. Just sucks when I feel like I can't get caught up to a place where I don't feel behind. Still going to have to wear two hats for awhile but hopefully come summer that won't be the case anymore.
And I think we just got talked into becoming co-race directors for a 5k/10k race. Stay tuned
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And we are still doing well on our #Geocache365 challenge. Today was day 151. I know we haven't posted much about it but I wanted to let you know we are still in full swing with that :)
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Oh and Mike and Charlie (Forever Films) told us that our wedding video will be ready to preview next week. They are super excited about it. I was surprised to hear that it's about 45 minutes long. There will be a "highlight" version that comes out as well that I will post a link to as soon as it's out on the web for viewing.
So I've been continuing with my PT at least once a week ($80+ per visit....sigh...) and making some slow progress on the healing of my leg issues. After today she believes I'm deformed, to put it lightly. Without trying to go into medical speak, basically my hip joint isn't perfectly aligned and when my muscles are tight and knotted up, it causes issues. It's not rare but it's not really common either. In some cases it requires surgery to fix but she doesn't think I'm anywhere near that conclusion.
I have only done a few VERY short runs and am excited to pick up my Newton shoes tomorrow and give them a whirl. I hope I'm not getting too excited that I'm going to put them on and all the pain will be magically gone. A number of people have noted that after starting to run in Newtons they no longer had IT band issues. Cross your fingers please :)
We have both been struggling to get back into a workout routine. In the past couple weeks, we've been swimming a few times, been to a fitness class once and done a few 3 or less mile runs. Having a hard time getting motivated to want to workout but at the same time I have this nagging voice in the back of my head all day saying "slacker.... go workout, you know you'll feel better, you're getting weaker, don't you want to be stronger? faster??" I don't think the weather is helping at all unfortunately, for those of you that have followed me on my old blog you know I'm not a fan of treadmills and also hate the cold, slippery trails.
But I've had a few very panicky moments during those short runs. I am feeling so much more exhausted after just a mile...WTF?....and I want to sign up for a 50k at the end of April and then focus on speed training for a Boston Qualifier??? Good freakin' luck right?? I was excited about it before my running world came tumbling down....
Work has been crazy this week on a number of fronts but all good I guess. Just sucks when I feel like I can't get caught up to a place where I don't feel behind. Still going to have to wear two hats for awhile but hopefully come summer that won't be the case anymore.
And I think we just got talked into becoming co-race directors for a 5k/10k race. Stay tuned
------------------------
And we are still doing well on our #Geocache365 challenge. Today was day 151. I know we haven't posted much about it but I wanted to let you know we are still in full swing with that :)
------------------------
Oh and Mike and Charlie (Forever Films) told us that our wedding video will be ready to preview next week. They are super excited about it. I was surprised to hear that it's about 45 minutes long. There will be a "highlight" version that comes out as well that I will post a link to as soon as it's out on the web for viewing.
Friday, October 15, 2010
#Geocache365: Week 9 - October 4th-10th
Monday: Day 57 - Resorting to some night caching when we DNF'd before having dinner with the family.
Kris: Unfortunately DNF'd an attempt before dinner with Mark's family before his Dad headed home to AZ so we had to go after dinner and therefore, in the dark. Mark: Now that the sun is setting before 7pm, we are having to find more and more of cache a days in the dark. Having o find cache on the fly that can be found in the dark can prove to be a challenge. I think we got lucky tonight. This cache was a milestone for me, it was my 1000th cache find in Minnesota.
Tuesday: Day 58 - A truly very EVIL hide! It is a good thing that the muggle drivers are unaware of the evil.
Kris: Aptly named puzzle cache in a high traffic area. We were heading down the parkway on the way to the lakes for the run and wanted to get this one to verify the final coordinate placement. Mark: The published coords for this puzzle are in the middle of the nearby lake and during a run earlier in the day we saw a great place for a cache hide but we figured this cache was nearby. After our run I spent some time solving this cache to see if our potential hiding spot was available. Unfortunately not, but the moment when I realized how to solve this puzzle was fun.
Wednesday: Day 59 - Thank You for Geocaching!
Kris: Near our favorite Lifetime club we had to again go for one in the dark. Weather has been holding out for us though so it's just fighting the dark for the find, not the cold...yet. Mark: One of the things that makes night caching for #Geocache365 an issue is not necessarily finding the cache (in this case it was very easy and i got us to ground zero just using the satellite map on my iPhone) but rather trying to figure out what to take a picture of, my iPhone does not take the greatest nighttime pictures. After struggling a bit Kris figured out this picture and it turned out to be very appropriate. A second milestone this week, this is my 1000Th Traditional Cache. So Thank You!
Thursday: Day 60 - Ready, Set, Go! No bug spray required.
Kris: Had to make a quick find nearby to home so Mark could get to the recycling center and drop off an old TV. Plus I wanted to get home to start a batch of turkey chili :) Wishing I had my hiking boots on though for this one. Mark: To often caches are in the woods and there is not much around that makes for an interesting picture, not so today. The cache was just off a single track mountain bike trail that I have ridden on several occasions and right next to the trail is the very backwater scummy pond which today looked very pristine especially with the power line tower. I was also amused by the cache "container" and I could not help from dropping a veiled reference in the tweet for the day.
Friday: Day 61 - Must be Homecoming?
Kris: Over in St. Paul to use our Living Social coupon for a comedy show and came across a nearby park. Funny there were two houses nearby covered in TP. Hence today's description. Cache was in an obvious beacon in the middle of what seemed to be a somewhat abandoned park. Mark: It is one thing to look at the geocaching map sitting at my desk and pick a cache to find in Mendota Heights on the way to a comedy club but when you get on site things take on a different perspective and grabbing a quick cache is a lot harder then it looked. After driving by our original intended cache an realizing there was nowhere to park we resorted to this cache which work out rather well.
Saturday: Day 62 - A skirt lifter. Sure, but which one?
Kris: We were on our way through my old stomping ground to a 30th birthday dinner for my long time friend and came upon a cache with a name that implied it should be a quick find. Mark: A cache named "Skirt Lifter"? Sure enough, made for a quick P&G. Took more time trying to figure out what to take a picture of.
Sunday: Day 63 - 10/10/10! A day full of events with a Cherry on Top!!
Kris: A fantastic day full of geocaching events! The final event was from 10:10:10pm until 12:01am at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. Mark: Nothing like looking for a cache with about 20+ other people and spending far to much time not finding it. After taking a few pictures and watching everyone else for a bit I decided to get my hands dirty and really give it a good look. After looking around the structure for a bit I came to the conclusion where I would hide the cache which caused me to pause and look around. Sure enough Gilby was standing there with a few other caches and it was obvious that he had the cache in his hands. After staring at him for a few seconds he said I suppose I will put the cache back so others could find it. He put it back right where I thought it should have been.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
#Geocache365: Week 8 - September 27th - October 3rd
Monday: Day 50 - Park Here! Really? Are you sure I won't come back and have to say Hi to the nice officer.
Mark: Driving out to Waconia for dinner with Kris's parents and since we did not bring a dog with it allowed us to head into the woods to grab a cache. Kris: Now as you can see this doesn't really look like an actual parking space. It was a bit nerve-racking leaving the car (hoping a cop wouldn't be ticketing it when we got back) but we had a nice walk into the woods where there were a couple of obvious beacons. Luckily the mosquitos were down and we made our way to the right one.
Tuesday: Day 51 - A quick P&G despite what the previous logs indicate.
Mark: I met Kris at Byerlys for some grocery shopping and then we grabbed a cache in nearby Valley Place Park. Kris: Nothing too special about this find as we just had to find something for the day. With the nice weather though we did have to pretend to look like we were hanging out behind the sign with a purpose other than looking around in the rocks for a pill bottle!
Wednesday: Day 52 - Good thing the "May Require Swimming" attribute was not selected.
Mark: Met Kris for lunch and we decided to grab a quick cache after dropping off some ZapEvent fliers at Downtown Dog. Kris: Always nice to go caching along the river. There were two obvious types of beacons to search and it was hard to search both quickly (before the meter cops came around) with lots of muggles on the trail. Luckily we found it and could sit on the ledge without looking like we were obviously up to something.
Thursday: Day 53 - There are a lot of bulls-eyes around here, not sure which one to target my search.
Mark: Down in Edina for dinner with a coupon and to see Zola Budd and the new Newton Trail shoes at Gear running store, we picked up another of the CoJ puzzles that I had the solution for. Kris: Mark already had the solution to this puzzle and we happened to be in the area. Unfortunately this is one where I wish they gave an altitude along with the coords. Took a bit longer to search all options before we found it.
Friday: Day 54 - Nope, no deer tonight. Well except for this one.
Mark: A very quick stop on the way to Byerlys to grab some dinner. Kris: This one had a cute cache name and was a quick find walking along the sidewalk. Traffic made it difficult to grab and replace though without being seen.
Saturday: Day 55 - Hangin with Marcy, reading our Delorme Map books.
Mark: In St. Paul for the Twin Cities Marathon Expo, we had a chance to park right next to this cache and we grabbed it on our way out. Kris: Great spot for some cute pictures (as you can see). The description and hint pretty much lead us right to the spot but again had to be mindful of muggles and pretend to be bending down for a reason other than to search benches undersides for magnetic containers.
Sunday: Day 56 - Believe it or not this view is only a few feet from the road, just like the cache.
Mark: We spent most of the morning cheering on at the Twin Cities Marathon but we forgot to grab a cache at the ALARC 20 mile wall so we ended up picking up a non-winter friendly cache near the house. Kris: A quick find just a few feet off the road and finally a day without a location full of muggles! Leaves definitely cover up a lot more hiding spots in fall though so there was a bit more digging to check all the possible spots before we found the right one.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
#Geocache365: Week 7 - September 20th-26th
Monday: Day 43 - Going back to correct a DNF. Success!!
Kris: A little bit of a swampy walk off the trail but nothing horrible. Surprised we didn't find it the first time, must have been shoved in a little too far last time we were here. Lots of those sticky bushes to dodge on the walk in and out and the mosquitos are bad! Mark: Recently we DNF'd this cache while we were doing the Golden Valley History cache. Not one of my favorite types of caches to begin with. The mosquitos were vicious and distracting all at the same time. We originally spent about 10-15 minutes looking for this one before calling it quits. This afternoon, we approached from the other side of the "bridge" and I had the cache in hand in under a minute. Sometime the environment can be distracting enough to cause a DNF.
Tuesday: Day 44 - 1st time we spent 30 minutes without finding it, 2nd time we found it in less than 5 minutes.
Kris: Another one I couldn't figure out how we didn't see it the first time. Very busy stairwell with lots of metal so our minds both went to look for something magnetic. Problem here is you can get to GZ and not know which level to look on. Mark: Looks like we are starting the week by cleaning up a few DNF's. This cache was one of the puzzles originally included in the Cup of Joe puzzles edition where they provided the answers to about 40-50 puzzles. That CoJ event was over two years ago and to this day you will often hear cachers talking about it and asking if you have the solutions packet. I have held onto my packet knowing that eventually I would go back and grab all of the remaining available caches. This was our second attempt, the first time we spent more than 30 minutes looking and it was after dark, which may have been a factor, but this time in the daylight I walked right up and grabbed it almost immediately.
Wednesday: Day 45 - Grabbing a quick cache at lunchtime, trying to beat the dark clouds on the horizon
Kris: Fairly simple grab once we got positioned in the right parking lot. Luckily there weren't too many people outside on their lunch break or it may have been a bit more challenging to get to the cache and not look suspicious. Mark: Running errands and grabbing a cache has become a common occurrence since we started the 365 challenge. We know there was a forecast for a lot of rain this afternoon/evening (which turns out was an understatement, this was the day that all of the flooding rains fell on southern Minnesota) so we decided to get our cache find out of the way before it started raining. But as you can see the clouds were on the horizon.
Thursday: Day 46 - A Red Herring! No. A Yellow Herring. No. A Yellow Duck???
Kris: Love this one! Not only did we fall for the cute trick left by the cache hider but the actual hide is one of my favorites so once I was re-directed I got it right away. Pulled up to GZ and we had to choose between a couple medium sized trees and a lamppost. Where would you look first? Mark: Now this was fun and one of those occasion when finding a cache leads you to something completely unrelated but makes you smile. Pulled up to the cache coordinate and I quickly had a container in my hand, but to my surprise it was not that easy. The cache hider had placed a red herring in the OBVIOUS beacon and it simply stated "You didn't really think we'd place the cache in a lamp post did you? This is not the the cache, please try again, thanks for visiting..." I even took a picture of the note and container intending that to be our picture for the day but after finding the real cache, about 20 feet away we saw a much more appropriate picture. Because our #Geocache365 is more about our experiences while finding a cache every day, who can resist a giant inflatable rubber duck?
Friday: Day 47 - One of these things is not like the other...
Kris: Ah, another one of my favorites. An easy grab for me as this type of hide sticks out to me. One of my first finds was of this type and I thought it was the most creative thing ever! Beautiful little spot with the creek flowing through and not too much traffic driving by. Mark: Our first attempt at a cache for today was a lot of fun but unfortunately the cache itself was missing so we had to fall back and find another cache nearby to go look for. We pulled up and were looking for about a minute when Kris said found it, and she was surprised that I had missed it, and so was I as this is one of my favorite types of caches and based on GZ I should have known to be looking for it. It is funny how much a cache like this stands out after you find it but if you don't know it is there you would never see it even though it is right out in the open.
Saturday: Day 48 - When worlds collide. Trail running meets geocaching. Birkie Trail Run 2010
Kris: A gorgeous place for geocaching! A quick, quiet walk down the ski trail and a few feet off into the brush. Pretty typical forest hide since this is an area where I don't think many people get off the trail. Mark: After finishing the Birkie Trail Half Marathon we drove back to the start line to find our cache for the day. How appropriate that our cache was right near the starting line and we actually ran within 30 feet of the cache when the race started. A beautiful day and the colors were amazing as you can see in the pic.
Sunday: Day 49 - Shameless Plug :) "Skol Vikings, Let's win this game"
Kris: Figured a good downtown cache would be good for us today. Picked one quite a ways out from the stadium so muggle traffic wasn't too heavy. GPS wasn't locking us in to one spot but knowing the size of the container it narrowed us down to just a couple of obvious beacons. Mark: Yes, I know that was a shameless plug, but they did win (Kris: barely!). Kris and I have been parking in her work parking lot and then walking about 1 1/2 miles to the dome for the game, which of course gives us an opportunity to look for a cache on our way. We had to spend quite a bit of time looking for this one as there was not many places to hide a cache at GZ and it eventually required a hand search of every nook and cranny and then I ran my fingers over it and it popped of out it hiding spot and fell to the ground. When I put it back I was shocked that I did not see it at all before finding it. Off to the game!! Go Vikes!
Kris: A little bit of a swampy walk off the trail but nothing horrible. Surprised we didn't find it the first time, must have been shoved in a little too far last time we were here. Lots of those sticky bushes to dodge on the walk in and out and the mosquitos are bad! Mark: Recently we DNF'd this cache while we were doing the Golden Valley History cache. Not one of my favorite types of caches to begin with. The mosquitos were vicious and distracting all at the same time. We originally spent about 10-15 minutes looking for this one before calling it quits. This afternoon, we approached from the other side of the "bridge" and I had the cache in hand in under a minute. Sometime the environment can be distracting enough to cause a DNF.
Tuesday: Day 44 - 1st time we spent 30 minutes without finding it, 2nd time we found it in less than 5 minutes.
Kris: Another one I couldn't figure out how we didn't see it the first time. Very busy stairwell with lots of metal so our minds both went to look for something magnetic. Problem here is you can get to GZ and not know which level to look on. Mark: Looks like we are starting the week by cleaning up a few DNF's. This cache was one of the puzzles originally included in the Cup of Joe puzzles edition where they provided the answers to about 40-50 puzzles. That CoJ event was over two years ago and to this day you will often hear cachers talking about it and asking if you have the solutions packet. I have held onto my packet knowing that eventually I would go back and grab all of the remaining available caches. This was our second attempt, the first time we spent more than 30 minutes looking and it was after dark, which may have been a factor, but this time in the daylight I walked right up and grabbed it almost immediately.
Wednesday: Day 45 - Grabbing a quick cache at lunchtime, trying to beat the dark clouds on the horizon
Kris: Fairly simple grab once we got positioned in the right parking lot. Luckily there weren't too many people outside on their lunch break or it may have been a bit more challenging to get to the cache and not look suspicious. Mark: Running errands and grabbing a cache has become a common occurrence since we started the 365 challenge. We know there was a forecast for a lot of rain this afternoon/evening (which turns out was an understatement, this was the day that all of the flooding rains fell on southern Minnesota) so we decided to get our cache find out of the way before it started raining. But as you can see the clouds were on the horizon.
Thursday: Day 46 - A Red Herring! No. A Yellow Herring. No. A Yellow Duck???
Kris: Love this one! Not only did we fall for the cute trick left by the cache hider but the actual hide is one of my favorites so once I was re-directed I got it right away. Pulled up to GZ and we had to choose between a couple medium sized trees and a lamppost. Where would you look first? Mark: Now this was fun and one of those occasion when finding a cache leads you to something completely unrelated but makes you smile. Pulled up to the cache coordinate and I quickly had a container in my hand, but to my surprise it was not that easy. The cache hider had placed a red herring in the OBVIOUS beacon and it simply stated "You didn't really think we'd place the cache in a lamp post did you? This is not the the cache, please try again, thanks for visiting..." I even took a picture of the note and container intending that to be our picture for the day but after finding the real cache, about 20 feet away we saw a much more appropriate picture. Because our #Geocache365 is more about our experiences while finding a cache every day, who can resist a giant inflatable rubber duck?
Friday: Day 47 - One of these things is not like the other...
Kris: Ah, another one of my favorites. An easy grab for me as this type of hide sticks out to me. One of my first finds was of this type and I thought it was the most creative thing ever! Beautiful little spot with the creek flowing through and not too much traffic driving by. Mark: Our first attempt at a cache for today was a lot of fun but unfortunately the cache itself was missing so we had to fall back and find another cache nearby to go look for. We pulled up and were looking for about a minute when Kris said found it, and she was surprised that I had missed it, and so was I as this is one of my favorite types of caches and based on GZ I should have known to be looking for it. It is funny how much a cache like this stands out after you find it but if you don't know it is there you would never see it even though it is right out in the open.
Saturday: Day 48 - When worlds collide. Trail running meets geocaching. Birkie Trail Run 2010
Kris: A gorgeous place for geocaching! A quick, quiet walk down the ski trail and a few feet off into the brush. Pretty typical forest hide since this is an area where I don't think many people get off the trail. Mark: After finishing the Birkie Trail Half Marathon we drove back to the start line to find our cache for the day. How appropriate that our cache was right near the starting line and we actually ran within 30 feet of the cache when the race started. A beautiful day and the colors were amazing as you can see in the pic.
Sunday: Day 49 - Shameless Plug :) "Skol Vikings, Let's win this game"
Kris: Figured a good downtown cache would be good for us today. Picked one quite a ways out from the stadium so muggle traffic wasn't too heavy. GPS wasn't locking us in to one spot but knowing the size of the container it narrowed us down to just a couple of obvious beacons. Mark: Yes, I know that was a shameless plug, but they did win (Kris: barely!). Kris and I have been parking in her work parking lot and then walking about 1 1/2 miles to the dome for the game, which of course gives us an opportunity to look for a cache on our way. We had to spend quite a bit of time looking for this one as there was not many places to hide a cache at GZ and it eventually required a hand search of every nook and cranny and then I ran my fingers over it and it popped of out it hiding spot and fell to the ground. When I put it back I was shocked that I did not see it at all before finding it. Off to the game!! Go Vikes!
Thursday, September 23, 2010
#Geocache365: Week 6 - September 13th-19th
Mark: This past week was highlighted by Geocoinfest 2010 Mega Event on Sunday and the other events associated with during the weekend. Kris: I won't lie, I spent the whole week looking forward to Geocoinfest! (Nerd stamp for me :-P)
Monday: Day 36 - Our Journey to find the cache
Mark: Another Monday evening driving out to Waconia, this time bringing Journey with us. We saw this cache along the river and drove a little bit out of the way but still got to the Chiropractor on time. Kris: Just into the trees on a muggle-filled trail. One we like to run on actually. Not a hard find, just had to dodge the mosquitos and help Journey down the slope. Then it was a brisk walk back to the car and some quick driving to get to my appointment on time!
Tuesday: Day 37 - Tuesday Night Lights
Mark: Drove to Dred Scott field in Bloomington to watch Kris' niece's football game. Kris: We figured we would have to wait until the game ended in order to grab the cache. The game was over (Lily played awesome!) and most of the parking lot cleared out so we wandered back to this little building and took a seat on the bench. Made the find without looking too suspicious. Gotta love the "shoe tying" trick ;)
Wednesday: Day 38 - Sometimes you have to find them in between the rain drops and still run into another cacher
Mark: As we were debating about what cache to find for the day a new cache was published not to far away while it was raining and getting dark. Kris: We can't resist a good dash to try for a FTF. Fortunately it wasn't raining too hard when we parked. Unfortunately we were parked on the wrong side of the pond so we had to leap the creek and saw a bright yellow jacket wandering in the woods. Sparkfry was already at GZ. It was getting dark but luckily Mark made the find but blindly sticking his hands into crevaces in the trees (not really my thing in the dark). We ended up STF with Sparkyfry as someone else already signed FTF. Gotta be quick around here!
Thursday: Day 39 - Not your typical cache and certainly not Tupperware in a Log
Mark: We had an errand to run down in Bloomington during lunch time and along the way I found this unusual cache for us to find. Kris: Wow now this is one where you are kind of uncomfortable no matter how many times you check "yes it really does say placed with permission!" This one almost bordered on a multi or puzzle cache since it actually took figuring out a bit of trivia and then going to two locations in the building to find. After doing the trivia, you end up with a 5 digit number and when you go to the Suite that is listed, the "cache" is pretty obvious. Very fun and clever. Might be a bit weird though when the office at that suite is actually open for business! But I'm sure they all know what's going on and get a good kick out of it :)
Friday: Day 40 - Potluck, S'Mores and a random TB Frog
Mark: The GCF S'Mores event was in Crosby Park and we took the opportunity to get in our run before attending. The event was not our planned 365 cache for the day but due to really poor quality pictures taken in the dark at a cache we resorted back to a picture we took earlier in the evening at the event. Kris: Days are getting much too short on us in terms of daylight! This ended up being a huge event with over 250 people in attendance and some super cool travel items to discover. This big dude was my favorite and cool enough to be today's 365 picture.
Saturday: Day 41 - Trolley? What Trolley? Oh, I get it now. It helps if I actually read the entire description
Mark: Part of the GCF Minneapolis cache run, this cache was in a fairly remote part of Edina, we never new this was back here. Kris: I can't even begin to tell you how much I wish I had my running shoes on. What a fantastic trail that we never would have discovered had it not been for geocaching!! And this tree at GZ was beyond huge. Wonder how old it actually is?
Sunday: Day 42 - MEGA Event!! Geocoinfest 2010 - Volunteering, Geocoin Poker, Pathtags and Geocoins! So Much Fun!!
Mark: The Mega Event was at the Holiday Inn near the airport and there was so much to do through out the day. What a great event! Kris: Today was go, go, go! We had to start the day with a 12 mile run and then off to the Geocoinfest event for all day fun! First we volunteered at the Silent Auction table which was a blast since we got to chat with so many cachers as they browsed the table. We scanned the vendors that were there and spent the afternoon chatting and pathtag trading. We ended the day by playing in the Geocoin Texas Hold'em tournament. I had no idea what I was doing but we both hung in there about half way through. We stuck around to see the winner and made our way home, exhausted from a long, exciting weekend :)
Monday: Day 36 - Our Journey to find the cache
Mark: Another Monday evening driving out to Waconia, this time bringing Journey with us. We saw this cache along the river and drove a little bit out of the way but still got to the Chiropractor on time. Kris: Just into the trees on a muggle-filled trail. One we like to run on actually. Not a hard find, just had to dodge the mosquitos and help Journey down the slope. Then it was a brisk walk back to the car and some quick driving to get to my appointment on time!
Tuesday: Day 37 - Tuesday Night Lights
Mark: Drove to Dred Scott field in Bloomington to watch Kris' niece's football game. Kris: We figured we would have to wait until the game ended in order to grab the cache. The game was over (Lily played awesome!) and most of the parking lot cleared out so we wandered back to this little building and took a seat on the bench. Made the find without looking too suspicious. Gotta love the "shoe tying" trick ;)
Wednesday: Day 38 - Sometimes you have to find them in between the rain drops and still run into another cacher
Mark: As we were debating about what cache to find for the day a new cache was published not to far away while it was raining and getting dark. Kris: We can't resist a good dash to try for a FTF. Fortunately it wasn't raining too hard when we parked. Unfortunately we were parked on the wrong side of the pond so we had to leap the creek and saw a bright yellow jacket wandering in the woods. Sparkfry was already at GZ. It was getting dark but luckily Mark made the find but blindly sticking his hands into crevaces in the trees (not really my thing in the dark). We ended up STF with Sparkyfry as someone else already signed FTF. Gotta be quick around here!
Thursday: Day 39 - Not your typical cache and certainly not Tupperware in a Log
Mark: We had an errand to run down in Bloomington during lunch time and along the way I found this unusual cache for us to find. Kris: Wow now this is one where you are kind of uncomfortable no matter how many times you check "yes it really does say placed with permission!" This one almost bordered on a multi or puzzle cache since it actually took figuring out a bit of trivia and then going to two locations in the building to find. After doing the trivia, you end up with a 5 digit number and when you go to the Suite that is listed, the "cache" is pretty obvious. Very fun and clever. Might be a bit weird though when the office at that suite is actually open for business! But I'm sure they all know what's going on and get a good kick out of it :)
Friday: Day 40 - Potluck, S'Mores and a random TB Frog
Mark: The GCF S'Mores event was in Crosby Park and we took the opportunity to get in our run before attending. The event was not our planned 365 cache for the day but due to really poor quality pictures taken in the dark at a cache we resorted back to a picture we took earlier in the evening at the event. Kris: Days are getting much too short on us in terms of daylight! This ended up being a huge event with over 250 people in attendance and some super cool travel items to discover. This big dude was my favorite and cool enough to be today's 365 picture.
Saturday: Day 41 - Trolley? What Trolley? Oh, I get it now. It helps if I actually read the entire description
Mark: Part of the GCF Minneapolis cache run, this cache was in a fairly remote part of Edina, we never new this was back here. Kris: I can't even begin to tell you how much I wish I had my running shoes on. What a fantastic trail that we never would have discovered had it not been for geocaching!! And this tree at GZ was beyond huge. Wonder how old it actually is?
Sunday: Day 42 - MEGA Event!! Geocoinfest 2010 - Volunteering, Geocoin Poker, Pathtags and Geocoins! So Much Fun!!
Mark: The Mega Event was at the Holiday Inn near the airport and there was so much to do through out the day. What a great event! Kris: Today was go, go, go! We had to start the day with a 12 mile run and then off to the Geocoinfest event for all day fun! First we volunteered at the Silent Auction table which was a blast since we got to chat with so many cachers as they browsed the table. We scanned the vendors that were there and spent the afternoon chatting and pathtag trading. We ended the day by playing in the Geocoin Texas Hold'em tournament. I had no idea what I was doing but we both hung in there about half way through. We stuck around to see the winner and made our way home, exhausted from a long, exciting weekend :)
Thursday, September 16, 2010
#Geocache365: Week 5 - September 6th-12th
Mark: This week saw two milestone caches, one for each of us, a few last minute cache finds in the dark and and a day trip to Manakto for a very fun event.
Monday: Day 29 - Kris' 500th Cache!!
Kris: We were losing daylight since we decided to wait until after my niece's birthday party. The GPS had us wandering in the woods. It was pointing deep into the brush between two paved paths in a park. Mark: Milestones, weather it is you 100th, 1000th or even 5000th cache you always try to make it something unique. We knew that another milestone cache was coming up for Kris and we thought about trying to make Geocoinfest her 500th find but after counting the the number of days until the event and the fact that we still have to find at least one cache day we realized that was not going to work out. So after spending the after noon celebrating Lilly's birthday we found a nearby cache that looked like it might have a coin in it and hopefully that would do for a milestone cache. Unfortunately no coin, we will make sure Kris's next major milestone is something cool.
Tuesday: Day 30 - Sometimes you have to find and sign them in the dark.
Kris: Days are getting shorter and we seem to be night caching more than I would like. Definitely adds an element of difficulty! Luckily this one pointed us to what I'd call an obvious beacon on a fence by the running/biking trail. Mark: So this evening we were interview by our videoographers for our wedding video and it was at the Caribou Coffee where Kris and I met and it was a fun evening causing quite the disruption at Caribou. Unfortunately by the time we were done it was dark, oh and by the way, when did it start getting dark so early again? Anyways, we quickly checked our iPhones looking for a quick cache that might not be to difficult to find in the dark. We lucked out, there was one not to far away and it was common fence post cap style of cache that we managed to find after about 30 seconds at GZ. This cache does make me wonder what it is going to be like this winter when it is dark when you go to work and dark when you come home.
Wednesday: Day 31 - This is how this evening went; Flash, Dash & Cache.
Kris: Again...a cache after dark! But considering the GPS was pointing us right to a spot with three pine trees, we knew what to look for. Loved the container on this one! Didn't love feeling like a deer in the headlights while signing the log :-P Mark: "Flash", so we were notified that a local running store was asking for members of our running club to participate in a photo shoot in the store, pretending to be customers. It turned out to be kinda of fun, but our real hope was that we would win the $100 gift card that were giving out as incentive and as a way to say Thank you for helping. "Dash" was our 4 mile run with some of our ALARC club membesr right after the photo shoot. And then "Cache" was finding our 365 cache for the day, again in the dark. Another standard cache type but it was very easy, practclly a park and Grab, the picture was taken from the drives seat of the car. Headlight really make finding a cache in the dark much easier.
Thursday: Day 32 - The things you find while Geocaching and this cache is a Letterbox.
Kris: This one was a letterbox, placed where a traditional cache was recently archived. Learned something new about archiving caches. I guess if you archive a cache, you can reserve the location to potentially place another one so someone else doesn't "steal" your spot. Mark: This was fun. We actually missed the publication and a possible FTF of a brand new letterbox less then a mile fromour house because we did not have our notifications set for the Letterbox types of cache, that was quickly remedied. We did decide that it would make a good 365 since we are trying to include all types of caches. This is actually the third cache that has been on this old abandoned car. Over time a cache my go missing or for some other reason the cache owner may decide to archive instead of replacing and then a new cache can be placed in the same location. According to another one of our caching friends, there have been 4 caches total at this car.
Friday: Day 33 - Special equipment needed? Nope! Then definitely not a Terrain 5.
Kris: I was intrigued by this one since it was marked a terrain of 5 but looking at the satellite map, it was just a ditch area with some trees. Terrain 5 is supposed to mean "special equipment needed". when we got there, I realized what they must have meant by the high rating. Mark: We saw this one pop up on our notification of newly published caches and it got our attention because it was listed as a Terrain 5, which by Geocacing definitions, requires special equipment to retrieve the cache. After looking at the map and satellite image we were stumped as to why it rated a Terrain 5, so we decided to go investigate. When we got to GZ, we ran into TJ of TJ&JJ, he had been looking for a few minutes and quickly pointed why this was named Futon. After a minute or so of looking around a tree at GZ Kris spotted the cache and quickly climbed the tree. Defiantly not a Terrain 5, more like a 3.5.
Saturday: Day 34 - I found my 1200th cache today during the OTAK 2010 event. Thanks Mankato!
Kris: We LOVE cache run events. A great opportunity to go caching in a new area and meet new people :) Mark: We spent the day in Mankato as part of the OTAK 2010 event and had a great time. For a first time event they did really well. Kris and I found all of the available 29 event caches both the temps and permanents. This cache turned out to be our 4th permanent find (12th total) of the day and at the end of the day we figured out it was also my 1200th find.
Sunday: Day 35 - Hard to tell in this picture but there are tons of muggles in the park on a beautiful day.
Kris: Playgrounds and city parks always pose a problem in the months of nice weather as there tend to be many muggles about. Luckily this one lead us to the far corner of the park and away from the action. Mark: Not every day can be a caching adventure like our trip to Mankato, some days you have to stay home and get a few things done around the house. The #Geocache365 project still does give us an excuse to get out of the house and still find at least one cache on what turned out to be a beautiful day. This was actually our second attempt after running to Target to pick up a few things for the house, the first park had muggles right on top of where the cache was so we switched to plan B. It is really hard to tell in this picture but this park is crawling with muggles, either playing softball, having a group get together picnic. Fortunately for us, this corner of the park was relatively muggle free and we were able to grab the cache with out attracting any attention.
Monday: Day 29 - Kris' 500th Cache!!
Kris: We were losing daylight since we decided to wait until after my niece's birthday party. The GPS had us wandering in the woods. It was pointing deep into the brush between two paved paths in a park. Mark: Milestones, weather it is you 100th, 1000th or even 5000th cache you always try to make it something unique. We knew that another milestone cache was coming up for Kris and we thought about trying to make Geocoinfest her 500th find but after counting the the number of days until the event and the fact that we still have to find at least one cache day we realized that was not going to work out. So after spending the after noon celebrating Lilly's birthday we found a nearby cache that looked like it might have a coin in it and hopefully that would do for a milestone cache. Unfortunately no coin, we will make sure Kris's next major milestone is something cool.
Tuesday: Day 30 - Sometimes you have to find and sign them in the dark.
Kris: Days are getting shorter and we seem to be night caching more than I would like. Definitely adds an element of difficulty! Luckily this one pointed us to what I'd call an obvious beacon on a fence by the running/biking trail. Mark: So this evening we were interview by our videoographers for our wedding video and it was at the Caribou Coffee where Kris and I met and it was a fun evening causing quite the disruption at Caribou. Unfortunately by the time we were done it was dark, oh and by the way, when did it start getting dark so early again? Anyways, we quickly checked our iPhones looking for a quick cache that might not be to difficult to find in the dark. We lucked out, there was one not to far away and it was common fence post cap style of cache that we managed to find after about 30 seconds at GZ. This cache does make me wonder what it is going to be like this winter when it is dark when you go to work and dark when you come home.
Wednesday: Day 31 - This is how this evening went; Flash, Dash & Cache.
Kris: Again...a cache after dark! But considering the GPS was pointing us right to a spot with three pine trees, we knew what to look for. Loved the container on this one! Didn't love feeling like a deer in the headlights while signing the log :-P Mark: "Flash", so we were notified that a local running store was asking for members of our running club to participate in a photo shoot in the store, pretending to be customers. It turned out to be kinda of fun, but our real hope was that we would win the $100 gift card that were giving out as incentive and as a way to say Thank you for helping. "Dash" was our 4 mile run with some of our ALARC club membesr right after the photo shoot. And then "Cache" was finding our 365 cache for the day, again in the dark. Another standard cache type but it was very easy, practclly a park and Grab, the picture was taken from the drives seat of the car. Headlight really make finding a cache in the dark much easier.
Thursday: Day 32 - The things you find while Geocaching and this cache is a Letterbox.
Kris: This one was a letterbox, placed where a traditional cache was recently archived. Learned something new about archiving caches. I guess if you archive a cache, you can reserve the location to potentially place another one so someone else doesn't "steal" your spot. Mark: This was fun. We actually missed the publication and a possible FTF of a brand new letterbox less then a mile fromour house because we did not have our notifications set for the Letterbox types of cache, that was quickly remedied. We did decide that it would make a good 365 since we are trying to include all types of caches. This is actually the third cache that has been on this old abandoned car. Over time a cache my go missing or for some other reason the cache owner may decide to archive instead of replacing and then a new cache can be placed in the same location. According to another one of our caching friends, there have been 4 caches total at this car.
Friday: Day 33 - Special equipment needed? Nope! Then definitely not a Terrain 5.
Kris: I was intrigued by this one since it was marked a terrain of 5 but looking at the satellite map, it was just a ditch area with some trees. Terrain 5 is supposed to mean "special equipment needed". when we got there, I realized what they must have meant by the high rating. Mark: We saw this one pop up on our notification of newly published caches and it got our attention because it was listed as a Terrain 5, which by Geocacing definitions, requires special equipment to retrieve the cache. After looking at the map and satellite image we were stumped as to why it rated a Terrain 5, so we decided to go investigate. When we got to GZ, we ran into TJ of TJ&JJ, he had been looking for a few minutes and quickly pointed why this was named Futon. After a minute or so of looking around a tree at GZ Kris spotted the cache and quickly climbed the tree. Defiantly not a Terrain 5, more like a 3.5.
Saturday: Day 34 - I found my 1200th cache today during the OTAK 2010 event. Thanks Mankato!
Kris: We LOVE cache run events. A great opportunity to go caching in a new area and meet new people :) Mark: We spent the day in Mankato as part of the OTAK 2010 event and had a great time. For a first time event they did really well. Kris and I found all of the available 29 event caches both the temps and permanents. This cache turned out to be our 4th permanent find (12th total) of the day and at the end of the day we figured out it was also my 1200th find.
Sunday: Day 35 - Hard to tell in this picture but there are tons of muggles in the park on a beautiful day.
Kris: Playgrounds and city parks always pose a problem in the months of nice weather as there tend to be many muggles about. Luckily this one lead us to the far corner of the park and away from the action. Mark: Not every day can be a caching adventure like our trip to Mankato, some days you have to stay home and get a few things done around the house. The #Geocache365 project still does give us an excuse to get out of the house and still find at least one cache on what turned out to be a beautiful day. This was actually our second attempt after running to Target to pick up a few things for the house, the first park had muggles right on top of where the cache was so we switched to plan B. It is really hard to tell in this picture but this park is crawling with muggles, either playing softball, having a group get together picnic. Fortunately for us, this corner of the park was relatively muggle free and we were able to grab the cache with out attracting any attention.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
#Geocache365: Week 4 - August 30th - September 5th
Mark: Week 4 found us still working on finding the stages of Golden Valley History and then on Sunday we headed out for a 1 day geocaching road trip to grab a couple more State Park Safari caches. Kris: It ended up more of a hiking adventure than a road trip :)
Monday: Day 22 - Mosquitos were so bad they almost carried off Truffle.
Mark: Out in Waconia again, this time with Truffle and before Kris' chiro appointment we decided to grab our cache of the day. Kris: Yikes the mosquitos were vicious! It was a short walk into the woods followed by a quick signature and carrying little Truffle briskly back OUT of the woods.
Tuesday: Day 23 - Woof, Woof, Woof.
Mark: This was a quick grab on our way out to a Fajita cruise on Lake Minnetonka. Kris: Cute little park with this pretty walk through area. The cache had a super cute name and very fitting for the item it was stuck to :)
Wednesday: Day 24 - Shhhhhhh.... People sleeping.
Mark: This cache was a direct result of one of visiting one of the stages for Golden Valley History cache. Great example of a quick fun multi-cache. Kris: Bleh!! I never do like cemetery caches but luckily this multi didn't actually make you go in the cemetery. You had to use information from within the cemetery but could stay on the outside of the fence.
Thursday: Day 25 - Coffee and a Cache, and yes Kris is throwing her gangster signs for 25.
Mark: After stopping for coffee in the morning we decided to get our cache of the day out of the way early. Kris: OK walking closer to GZ it was obvious that it had to somehow be ON this bridge but the GPS was jumping all over the place within 20ft of either end of the bridge. By reading some of the prior logs, we were able to narrow our search to a particular feature on the bridge to make the find. One muggle did come by as Mark was under the bridge so he sat like a silent troll while I politely said "good morning" and made it look like I was just hanging out enjoying my morning coffee ;) Oh, and this was our Day 25 find, hence the gangsta signs.
Friday: Day 26 - Found it as the light was fading fast.
Mark: This was supposed to be a quick find on the way to the store, but by the picture you can see we were running out of light. Can you see Kris in the pic? Kris: This is a little less accessible in the summer since there is a lot of tall brush and potentially hidden poison ivy (I'm a little paranoid...) but we found a sort of path in to near the cache location. There were a few muggles on the trail so I tried to hide as best I could ;)
Saturday: Day 27 - 13 Stages later we found "someones" stash.
Mark: After almost two weeks of visiting the various stages and figuring out the final location we finally made the find. A very long multi but also very fun! Kris: This was a fun multi for history buffs since it made you find a lot of historical places around Golden Valley that you would otherwise drive right by. The final stage was obviously "found" by a critter who packed the cache location full of their winter stash. Yes folks, we did put it all back before we left.
Sunday: Day 28 - 591 steps, good grief! At least we made the find!
Mark: One of our stops during our Labor Day weekend State Park Safari challenge road trip. The trip to and from the cache is what made it our cache of the day. Kris: Holy flip that was one hell of a climb! I suppose when the sign at the bottom says "difficult, one hour, 450 elevation" we should have had a pretty good idea of what we were getting into. Cache we were after is called "Timberrr!" so we knew what we were looking for. A long climb and short hike brought us right to the big beacon lining the path.
Monday: Day 22 - Mosquitos were so bad they almost carried off Truffle.
Mark: Out in Waconia again, this time with Truffle and before Kris' chiro appointment we decided to grab our cache of the day. Kris: Yikes the mosquitos were vicious! It was a short walk into the woods followed by a quick signature and carrying little Truffle briskly back OUT of the woods.
Tuesday: Day 23 - Woof, Woof, Woof.
Mark: This was a quick grab on our way out to a Fajita cruise on Lake Minnetonka. Kris: Cute little park with this pretty walk through area. The cache had a super cute name and very fitting for the item it was stuck to :)
Wednesday: Day 24 - Shhhhhhh.... People sleeping.
Mark: This cache was a direct result of one of visiting one of the stages for Golden Valley History cache. Great example of a quick fun multi-cache. Kris: Bleh!! I never do like cemetery caches but luckily this multi didn't actually make you go in the cemetery. You had to use information from within the cemetery but could stay on the outside of the fence.
Thursday: Day 25 - Coffee and a Cache, and yes Kris is throwing her gangster signs for 25.
Mark: After stopping for coffee in the morning we decided to get our cache of the day out of the way early. Kris: OK walking closer to GZ it was obvious that it had to somehow be ON this bridge but the GPS was jumping all over the place within 20ft of either end of the bridge. By reading some of the prior logs, we were able to narrow our search to a particular feature on the bridge to make the find. One muggle did come by as Mark was under the bridge so he sat like a silent troll while I politely said "good morning" and made it look like I was just hanging out enjoying my morning coffee ;) Oh, and this was our Day 25 find, hence the gangsta signs.
Friday: Day 26 - Found it as the light was fading fast.
Mark: This was supposed to be a quick find on the way to the store, but by the picture you can see we were running out of light. Can you see Kris in the pic? Kris: This is a little less accessible in the summer since there is a lot of tall brush and potentially hidden poison ivy (I'm a little paranoid...) but we found a sort of path in to near the cache location. There were a few muggles on the trail so I tried to hide as best I could ;)
Saturday: Day 27 - 13 Stages later we found "someones" stash.
Mark: After almost two weeks of visiting the various stages and figuring out the final location we finally made the find. A very long multi but also very fun! Kris: This was a fun multi for history buffs since it made you find a lot of historical places around Golden Valley that you would otherwise drive right by. The final stage was obviously "found" by a critter who packed the cache location full of their winter stash. Yes folks, we did put it all back before we left.
Sunday: Day 28 - 591 steps, good grief! At least we made the find!
Mark: One of our stops during our Labor Day weekend State Park Safari challenge road trip. The trip to and from the cache is what made it our cache of the day. Kris: Holy flip that was one hell of a climb! I suppose when the sign at the bottom says "difficult, one hour, 450 elevation" we should have had a pretty good idea of what we were getting into. Cache we were after is called "Timberrr!" so we knew what we were looking for. A long climb and short hike brought us right to the big beacon lining the path.
Friday, September 3, 2010
#Geocache365: Week 3 - August 23rd-29th
Mark: Week 3 found us not only finding our daily cache but also working on a 13 stage multicache in Golden Valley. I decided that we should try to find the information that we need at one stage every day along with the #Geocache365 cache, so I made a point of finding the closest cache to each of the 12 stages need to solve the final location and this week 4 of the caches were dual purpose. Kris: I've always like multicaches so being able to do this one WITH our #Geocache365 has been fun.
Kris: Fairly simple micro in a local park. Muggles were a factor in this area today as they are with most parks on a summer day. Mark: When we walked up to ground zero there were some local muggles playing hoops on the court next to the tennis courts so we had to keep an eye on them as we searched. We were the only others in the entire park so we looked a bit out of place as we parked and walked up but after watching the players for a little while we decided the did not even know we were there, which is always a good thing when dealing with muggles. Kris can just been seen in the picture on the left side.
Kris: Pretty easy find, typical pine tree hide. Mark: This is one of those times when I don't agree with the hide as it is obviously adding an opinion/view point/belief into geocaching. Geocaching should be universal and should not highlight one religion or another. So instead of a picture of the surroundings I chose to focus on the distance/accuracy of our GPS, everyone is different and it takes a bit to learn your particular GPS. In the picture we were actually about 7 feet from the cache.
Kris: This one was a quick find along the sidewalk. I love how I can be staring at my GPS, walking along the road and most people look at me and just think I'm staring at my smartphone :) Mark: Sometimes the cache hider adds a bit of local color into the name of the cache. In this case the creek in the picture has different spelling depending on who you ask. In this case is it "Bassett Creek", "Basset Creek" or 'Bassett's Creek"? What ever the correct name is you have learned something new about the area you are geocaching in.
Kris: This was a 2-stage near the running track we were on our way to. Road provided muggle traffic to be aware of and Mark's bright blue shirt didn't do much for camo :) I didn't venture all the way in for the final location due to the bushes that you had to go through. Mark: OK, I hate these things. The little stickers, seeds and other prickly things that attach themselves to your clothes and shoes when you are walking in an overgrown area. I am actually about 10 feet from the road but even here I had to be real careful grabbing the cache so I did not get to much on my clothing. That stuff really likes to stick to the technical race shirts that I like to wear.
Kris: Hidden by good caching friends of ours, Trista74. Playground not too far from home. No one in the park today so we had plenty of time to search. Mark: Playgrounds! These are a real headache and are high on my list of cache types that is dislike. A well hidden/creative container can frustrate you for hours on playground equipment, there are so many repetitive, similar hiding holes and like today, I thought I check all of them but as it turns out, the one that i didn't check is where Kris found the cache.
Saturday: Day 20 - A nice surprise this morning, an unactivated geocoin!
Kris: We had a busy day planned which was originally going to start by going to a nearby Breakfast Buddies event but we noticed a local cache with a log entry about a coin. Mark and I are fond of shiny objects so we re-routed our morning a bit to try to make the find in a city park area, just off a walking path. Mark: So if caches containing Travel Bugs get your attention, and Geocoins are actively sought after by coin hounds then finding an unactivated Geocoin must be the best prize your can find in a cache. Having a bit of inside information that the coin was there didn't hurt, certainly got us to adjust our plans very quickly so that we could go find this cache.
Kris: We knew we had little time to think about what cache to grab today so we just did a search nearby for ANY cache that was in the area of a friend's BBQ that afternoon. Nothing super special, just a city park micro hide. Mark: At the end of our third week, we have come to the conclusion that not every cache we find for #Geocach365 is going to be neat , or cool or even interesting. Sometimes, you just run out of time in a very busy day and have to find a cache as your going from one set of plans to another which brought us to this cache. It was very convenient, on our way to our friends BBQ and only took a few minutes.
Monday: Day 15 - Tennis Anyone?
Kris: Fairly simple micro in a local park. Muggles were a factor in this area today as they are with most parks on a summer day. Mark: When we walked up to ground zero there were some local muggles playing hoops on the court next to the tennis courts so we had to keep an eye on them as we searched. We were the only others in the entire park so we looked a bit out of place as we parked and walked up but after watching the players for a little while we decided the did not even know we were there, which is always a good thing when dealing with muggles. Kris can just been seen in the picture on the left side.
Tuesday: Day 16 - Close to the cache, 14ft w/25ft of accuracy.
Kris: Pretty easy find, typical pine tree hide. Mark: This is one of those times when I don't agree with the hide as it is obviously adding an opinion/view point/belief into geocaching. Geocaching should be universal and should not highlight one religion or another. So instead of a picture of the surroundings I chose to focus on the distance/accuracy of our GPS, everyone is different and it takes a bit to learn your particular GPS. In the picture we were actually about 7 feet from the cache.
Wednesday: Day 17 - Creek/Crick... Looks like water to me.
Kris: This one was a quick find along the sidewalk. I love how I can be staring at my GPS, walking along the road and most people look at me and just think I'm staring at my smartphone :) Mark: Sometimes the cache hider adds a bit of local color into the name of the cache. In this case the creek in the picture has different spelling depending on who you ask. In this case is it "Bassett Creek", "Basset Creek" or 'Bassett's Creek"? What ever the correct name is you have learned something new about the area you are geocaching in.
Thursday: Day 18 - look out for prickly/sticky things!
Kris: This was a 2-stage near the running track we were on our way to. Road provided muggle traffic to be aware of and Mark's bright blue shirt didn't do much for camo :) I didn't venture all the way in for the final location due to the bushes that you had to go through. Mark: OK, I hate these things. The little stickers, seeds and other prickly things that attach themselves to your clothes and shoes when you are walking in an overgrown area. I am actually about 10 feet from the road but even here I had to be real careful grabbing the cache so I did not get to much on my clothing. That stuff really likes to stick to the technical race shirts that I like to wear.
Friday: Day 19 - As soon as we quit playing around we found the cache.
Kris: Hidden by good caching friends of ours, Trista74. Playground not too far from home. No one in the park today so we had plenty of time to search. Mark: Playgrounds! These are a real headache and are high on my list of cache types that is dislike. A well hidden/creative container can frustrate you for hours on playground equipment, there are so many repetitive, similar hiding holes and like today, I thought I check all of them but as it turns out, the one that i didn't check is where Kris found the cache.
Saturday: Day 20 - A nice surprise this morning, an unactivated geocoin!
Kris: We had a busy day planned which was originally going to start by going to a nearby Breakfast Buddies event but we noticed a local cache with a log entry about a coin. Mark and I are fond of shiny objects so we re-routed our morning a bit to try to make the find in a city park area, just off a walking path. Mark: So if caches containing Travel Bugs get your attention, and Geocoins are actively sought after by coin hounds then finding an unactivated Geocoin must be the best prize your can find in a cache. Having a bit of inside information that the coin was there didn't hurt, certainly got us to adjust our plans very quickly so that we could go find this cache.
Sunday Day: Day 21 - Sometimes you have to find whatever is available on the way to a BBQ.
Kris: We knew we had little time to think about what cache to grab today so we just did a search nearby for ANY cache that was in the area of a friend's BBQ that afternoon. Nothing super special, just a city park micro hide. Mark: At the end of our third week, we have come to the conclusion that not every cache we find for #Geocach365 is going to be neat , or cool or even interesting. Sometimes, you just run out of time in a very busy day and have to find a cache as your going from one set of plans to another which brought us to this cache. It was very convenient, on our way to our friends BBQ and only took a few minutes.
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